All posts tagged SIM card

Since its 2008 debut in Japan, the iPhone has won the hearts of local consumers. The frenzy surrounding the later releases of the iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4 in particular, was something the gadget-loving nation hadn’t seen in years.

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It’s mine, all mine: A man cradles his newly acquired iPhone 4 in front of a cellphone store in Tokyo.

And the Apple Inc. phone’s only local carrier, Softbank Corp., is enjoying a happy marriage. In Japan, as in the U.S., every iPhone sold at local stores carries a SIM (subscriber identity module) card that has been locked to make it compatible only with one carrier. The handset’s success has been helping the company founded by the charismatic Masayoshi Son — the No. 3 mobile carrier by subscriptions — gain ground on bigger rivals NTT DoCoMo Inc. and KDDI Corp. The company’s stock has gained partly on hopes that the iPhone and the iPad, which it also sells, will continue to lift its earnings. So far, so good.

But every marriage faces challenges. The potential threat: small telecom services firm Japan Communications Inc., or JCI, says it plans to release around the end of this month a new SIM card which will work with iPhone 4 handsets that don’t have locked SIM cards. While the new SIM card carries DoCoMo network details, it doesn’t give access to DoCoMo’s full-blown connection environment. Read More »

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Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com